This is a novel process for converting chlorinated, nitrogen-containing hydrocarbons to metal chlorides, nitrogen and oxides of carbon.
In the synthesis of certain agricultural chemicals and other chemical products, chlorinated nitrogen-containing hydrocarbons co-products are obtained other than those desired. If these co-products do not have a defined commercial use, they are conventionally handled by thermal oxidization. However, such operations are generally expensive in part because of the fuel required to sustain combustion. Moreover, nitrogen oxides of the formula NO.sub.x wherein x is the integer 1 or 2 and other undesirable by-products may be produced. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a method of converting chlorinated, nitrogen-containing hydrocarbons to useful products.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,486,912 teaches that carbon tetrachloride can be reacted with titanium dioxide to yield titanium tetrachloride and oxides of carbon. However, other chlorinated hydrocarbons are generally recognized to be much less reactive. The treatment of nitrogen-containing compounds using this method has not been described.
Unexpectedly, it has now been found that by maintaining the apparatus ratio of carbon to available oxygen, chlorinated hydrocarbons containing nitrogen will essentially completely react with a suitable refractory metal oxide without producing significant quantities of oxides of nitrogen.